


Plans For The Future

by ThirteenRedVampireBites



Series: HP Rare Pair Bingo Round 1 [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Hogwarts House Sorting, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Confident Harry Potter, Courting Rituals, Insecure Theodore Nott, M/M, Multi, Slytherin Harry Potter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-11
Updated: 2020-02-11
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:35:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22670326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThirteenRedVampireBites/pseuds/ThirteenRedVampireBites
Summary: The class of 1998 is graduating, and Theo has fears.BINGO Prompt: "I Want to Know Your Plans" by Say Anything.
Relationships: Theodore Nott/Harry Potter/Blaise Zabini
Series: HP Rare Pair Bingo Round 1 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1516301
Comments: 5
Kudos: 99
Collections: Harry Potter Rare Pair Bingo





	Plans For The Future

**Author's Note:**

> So I've been sitting on this piece for almost three weeks because I kept forgetting to post it, but now with BINGO ending, I'm going to put the remaining ones out all week. 
> 
> I kinda lost the motivation for a while, so I've only got the one line on my card finished.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy!
> 
> ~Kate-Lee

Graduation.

Every student dreams of the day that they're freed from the confines of standard education to make their way in the world. If you'd asked him several years earlier, Theo would have shrugged and agreed, but now... Now, Theo wasn't sure.

He hadn't been sure of anything for years, in all honestly. Not since his father was arrested and he was sent to live with his Grandfather in the summer between 4th and 5th Year. A Grandfather he'd never met before, and who'd turned his whole life on its head.

Sitting on the sofa in their dorm and staring out the window into the murky green-black water of the Black Lake, Theo tried hard to keep the thoughts that had started creeping in at the beginning of this last term at bay. The annoying, nagging unpleasant insecure thoughts seemed to sneak in at the most inopportune times: just as he was falling asleep, while he was in the shower, when he was trying to work on his final project for Arithmancy, and most commonly when silence bloomed while he was with his boyfriends. He was a bit thankful that this current spiral was happening while he was alone because he knew that if the others noticed, he'd be fending off their attempts to either find out what was bothering him or cheer him up, and he really didn't want to deal with that right now.

Even asking his Grandfather for advice about his spiralling thoughts hadn't really helped, the older man telling him to at least once entertain the thoughts. Theo didn't want to.

He didn't want to hear his mind bring up everything that was worrying him. The fears. The anxiety. The re-rising insecurities he thought banished when the three of them finally got together at the end of 3rd Year...

"I don't really have a choice, do I?" he mumbled to himself as a softly glowing fish passed the window's view.

"A choice about what?" The voice behind him startled him so badly he nearly fell off the couch. He turned to find that his boyfriends had returned, Harry from Quidditch practice and Blaise from the library, and promptly got distracted.

Harry was in the process of getting out of his practice uniform, the jersey halfway up his torso. Theo was distracted by the muscles put on display by the action, watching the flex and movement of Harry's body as he finally got the jersey off and threw it into the hamper by the door to their bathroom.

"Don't have a choice about what, Theo?" Blaise repeated, tugging the knot in his tie loose.

Theo blinked, turning his attention from a grinning Harry to look at the older man as he walked over, tossing his tie onto his basically defunct bed, considering they all slept in Harry's bed near the windows. He unbuttoned the top buttons of his shirt as he crossed to the couch, dark-skinned fingers gliding over the tiny silver buttons.

"It's nothing," Theo assured him weakly, an almost-smile on his face as he looked up to meet indigo-violet eyes head-on.

Blaise frowned and raised his hand to lace his fingers into Theo's hair. "That look on your face means that it definitely is not nothing."

Theo shook his head as much as he was able without dislodging the touch. "It isn't something you could help with, B."

"Theo, love, it doesn't really matter if we can't tell you something that will help," Harry commented as he came to join them, forgoing his shirt. He folded his arms along the back of the couch, leaning down, so he and Theo were nearly nose to nose. "Us just listening may help. Especially since this has plagued you for so long."

That cinched it if Harry noticed that something was up, then it was exceedingly obvious. Harry could be exceedingly oblivious—it took him three months to realize that Blaise was serious when he told Harry they wanted to date him as well—so for him to notice that something was bothering Theo with the qualifier of "so long" meant that Harry had long noticed something bothering him.

"I…" Theo wasn't sure how to put his fears into proper words. "I…"

Blaise tugged at Theo's hair lightly before settling himself on the arm of the sofa. "Does it have something to do with the fact that graduation is coming up?" He asked, guiding Theo's head to his thigh.

"I…" Theo sighed before nodding, whispering, "Yes."

Harry rounded the couch, raising Theo's feet to slip beneath them before replacing them down in his lap. With his hands wrapped around Theo's ankles through the blanket, he couldn't help but comment, "It can't be graduation itself. Or NEWTs, you're studying nearly as much as Granger."

Blaise snorted and tugged at Theo's hair lightly. "No one can study as much as Granger. Even the Ravenclaws don't study as much as her," he brushed his fingers over Theo's forehead. "So, since it can't be that, it must be something else..."

"I... It's..." Unable to get the words out, Theo gritted his teeth before trying again, "No, it isn't graduation or exams, its..." Still, he couldn't get his mouth to connect to his brain or his brain to put the issue into proper words.

Harry squeezed his ankle gently, drawing his attention. Harry always seemed larger than life, so when his next question came out in a tiny meek tone, it set Theo's hair on end and his heart racing.

"It isn't us, is it?" Harry asked, a worried frown on his face.

"No!" Theo yelped, shooting up to grab Harry's hand. "No, it isn't either of you." He laced their fingers together and squeezed gently. "Well," he amended, turning his attention to the water again, "it is you, but not the way you think."

"Tesoro," Blaise murmured, reaching out to cup his chin and turn the other's face towards him. "What's on your mind?"

"I'm afraid," Theo whispered finally.

"Afraid of what?" Blaise asked, brushing his thumb under Theo's right eye.

"That I'll be left behind," Theo answered. "You both seem to have everything all planned out already: Harry's going to Romania to study herpetology and dragonology, and you are going to Egypt to study curse-breaking. I don't... I haven't... I can't..."

"Theo," Harry said, directing the other's attention to him, "Love, you have nothing to worry about." A relieved little laugh escaped him before he continued, "It doesn't matter if you haven't decided or figured out what you want to do yet. Especially after all of the changes of the last few years, between the three of us, we have enough money for none of us to work and live in lavishness for seven lifetimes."

Blaise leaned down to press a chase kiss to Theo's lips before he pulled back to meet Theo's blue-hazel eyes directly. "Harry's right, Tesoro. We have enough money for you to change careers a hundred times, so take as long as you need to figure out what Theodore Antonius Nott wants, not what Thaddeus Hypernius Nott ordered."

Harry squeezed Theo's ankles lightly before lifting his legs and getting up, gently returning the limbs to the cushion. "And if that doesn't settle your mind," Harry added as he crossed the room and out of Theo's view. "Maybe this will."

Theo heard the lock on Harry's trunk click before the lid opened, and Harry began to shuffle around in one of the compartments. The top closed, and the lock reengaged before Harry came around the sofa to kneel next to Theo's head, something hidden in his hands.

"I was going to wait until graduation," Harry started, squirming in his place. "But maybe this is a better time." He opened his hands to reveal a small jewelry box, handing it over to Theo.

"Is this—" Theo didn't want to get his hopes up and not voicing them always worked.

"Open it," Harry prompted, patting Theo's hand.

With shaking hands, Theo propped open the lid on the box. He couldn't stifle the gasp that escaped him when he saw what lie in the box on a bed of gray-dyed silk.

Twined together lie two sets of what could only be promise or engagement rings, depending on who you asked and their matching ear cuffs. All four pieces were gorgeous; one set simple and the other more complex, both obviously lovingly designed by the now attempting to hide Harry sat before them.

In the shape of a feather, the simple ring was made of white and rose gold. Twisted and unconnected, the feather made the top of the ring an inch wide. White gold made up the spine of the feather, and the fibres puffed out in peach-rose gold. The cuff was equally as simple, a plain white band with a feather matching the ring handing from an eye on the side.

The more complex set involved chains, chains around the band and identical chains connecting the two ear cuff bands. All three bands were made of a silvery metal Theo suspected was platinum considering his familial connections. The chains were made of the same materials—one alternating white and rose gold and the other almost black charcoal—but different types as the ring had curb chains flatted to fit into the band the cuff had delicate lengths of rope chain hanging down from each piece.

"I... uh... I started designing them last year. Aunt Alice found some of the old designs and surprised me with a visit to Chipper's over the summer. I was originally going to wait until after graduation, so we could have a long talk about what we're expecting but this feels like a better time and I know we haven't—"

Harry's babbling was cut off by Theo rolling out of Blaise's lap and pouncing on him, knocking both of them back against their plush carpet.

Over Theo's babbling yeses, Blaise told Harry, grinning, "Great minds think alike, don't they?" He quickly summoned a near-identical box from his trunk, waving it so that Harry could see.

Smiling like a sap at the top of Theo's head, Harry couldn't help but agree, "Yeah. Yeah, they do."

**Author's Note:**

> #  [Personal Tumblr](http://thirteenredvampirebites.tumblr.com) / [Writing Tumblr](http://crimsonswolfden.tumblr.com/) / [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Nightworldlove) / [My Writing Blog](https://kate-lee-shadows.blogspot.ca/) / Email: thirteenredangels@hotmail.com  
> 
> 
> ***Tumblr may not work. Just a warning.***  
> 


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